We Must Be Brave (Liardet) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Ellen, beset by hardship from a young age, ends up happy in a marriage blanc with the much older Selwyn, and is convinced she doesn’t want children until Pamela arrives. Then she experiences an all-consuming love that Liardet captures on the page with a heartbreaking conviction.
Times (UK)


Dazzling.… As a testament to parental love and its relationship to the heartbreaking, healing, almost ungraspable passage of time, We Must Be Brave is a great success: richly observed, lovingly drawn, and determinedly clear-eyed to the last.
Guardian (UK)


Poignant and absorbing.
People


Deeply moving.… A stunningly accurate portrayal of the all-encompassing depth of a mother’s love (whether she’s the biological mother or not). Read it and weep.
AARP Magazine 


Liardet’s lovely book [is] about love and loss, and our chosen families. Dare you not to weep.
Woman’s Day


Beautifully written. Its scope is ambitious, as it seeks to portray the longtime ravages that the war and its attendance upheavals perpetrated upon the home front.… [This historical war novel] is different and original.
Historical Novel Review


[A] moving American debut, set in WWII England, follows a childless woman discovering joy after she begins caring for a young girl.… Readers will be captivated by Ellen’s story, which is bolstered by a swift plot and characters who realistically and memorably grow.
Publishers Weekly


Though touted as World War II historical fiction, this tearjerker about motherhood and loss has more in common with M.L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans.… [A] quirky cast of characters… [and a] slightly rushed ending of a story stretch[es] across several decades. —Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL
Library Journal


This chronicle of an Englishwoman’s life across the middle of the 20th century radiates love and suffering through a caring but incomplete marriage, war, and aching affection for other people’s children.… [An] understated yet blazing story of hearts wounded and restored.
Kirkus Reviews